BSM
The Black Scorpion Mercenaries was a Second Life military group that ran from December 2009 until June 2010 that operated out of Kingston Springs. The Black Scorpion Mercenaries were known for their endurance and persistance throughout a battle. The Beginning With the slow destruction of The Dog Soldiers (TDS) in mid December 2009 and the rage banning of some of its members led to some of the groups’ loyal members to be left feeling betrayed and with a bad taste in their mouths. Due to poor leadership, ego's, and far-fetched accusations led many of the groups' members who weren't banned to leave, some joining other armies. Four ex-TDS members Walter Banufong, Princess Verwood, Creolan Diabolito and Derek Furman all felt the happenings in TDS were unjust. Princess Verwood spoke to Walter Banufong about the happenings and encouraged Baunfong to think of the possibility of creating his own army with Baunfong's good friend, Derek Furman. Both Verwood and Diabolito offered their help in this idea. Talk between the four began of this idea. One thing was for certain, they all experienced a lesson learned and each could say they at least knew how not to run an army. From scripting, building, excellent internal handling, strong leadership abilities to great writing skills between them, each of the four possessed different qualities that would make coming together to form an army a good idea. History As the new year approached a new army emerged called the Black Scorpion Mercenaries (or often referred to as BSM for short) at the end of December 2009. The four began planning on details for the new army as well as searching for a sim and deciding on a theme. Ideas flew between them leading them all to agree on a desert theme inspired by ideas and thoughts each of them had all put together into one. In the coming days Kingston Springs would house the army. Furman began building on the sim with the help of the other three. The end results were positive and better than they expected. Broken and abandon buildings, crashed planes, forgotten and buried city in the middle of nowhere and a hot sand horizon would be the battlefield for BSM and attackers. Upon opening Verwood and Diabolito both learned they would be needed into the General position as well along with Banufong and Furman. Due to time zones between the four this would assure at least one of them to be on. A new year, new army, new weapons, and new members joining daily, BSM began to receive attacks daily and sometimes multiple of times a day from larger armies as well as smaller armies. The more popular the army became the more issues arose which was to be expected. Four general’s were more than enough to insure a smooth operation of an army with many times anywhere from one to all four being on base at the same time. Problems arose in late January 2010 between three of the generals with Furman in how situations were handled with BSM members and non-BSM members leading to his leave during this time and a falling out between them. Days later after speaking to Banufong, Furman decided that he would continue to help the army with research and development, but not be enlisted. While the design of the sim seemed great and bloodshed worthy there were still issues with how quickly BSM members were able to exit out of their base area and respond. In large numbers from the attacking side, it would be near impossible for BSM members to defend. Questions were brought about the wall that fenced in the BSM spawn. Banufong called the help of a builder to create a new wall. After weeks and a slightly finished wall the general’s had grown impatient and were ready for the wall to be finished and installed. A day later the builder was contacted and asked to install the new massive wall. Along with the new wall a second BSM spawn was created in order to allow members the choice to respawn from either having outgrown the original small spawn. The main objective was located inside the original spawn and eventually causing problems of prim shooting from attackers and defenders due to the space being so small. Verwood, Diabolito, and other members opposed to the new massive wall. It extended to each side of the sim and still made it very hard for BSM members to correctly defend almost trapping BSM members inside the spawns. Upon learning of the new wall, Furman became frustrated seeing that his original wall was replaced leading to a dispute between Furman and Banufong and the deletion of the entire base and buildings. After discussing the matter with Banufong, Furman replaced the base and buildings as they previously were the same day. This dispute concerned the three general’s. It was clear that the base would need to be eventually replaced to not have the same happenings threaten the army and its base again. With Verwood in charge of training it was necessary to create a small course to assist with training. The basic training upon entering BSM depended on ones’ skill level that would determine if one would need to go through the initial basic training. The initial training consisted of many options and devices that were held on the training platform in the sky as well as on the ground implementing many techniques and drills that would better help the soldier’s move more efficient and quicker. With Verwood being the main person over the training, and with the help of Diabolito, they found it necessary to acquire more help for this area so they both could better focus on other army matters. The more members that joined the more training was needed in order to move people fairly through the ranks. To relieve some of the duty, Verwood and Diabolito decided upon two members who had shown a great deal of responsibility and who they felt would be excellent at training others. RICKROCKS Richez and Zilu Scofield were put through training and a series of meetings and tests to ensure they were ready to handle the responsibility and the new rank that came along with this new duty. Richez backed out days later from training due to personal reasons and was demoted by request to his previous position leaving Scofield to help train with Verwood and Diabolito. With the new rank that Scofield obtained brought a new attitude that was noticed by the 3 generals. Scofield came to Banufong, Verwood and Diabolito with a request to change the base completely as well have access to some of the groups of BSM. Scofield was asked to create a miniature model of his ideal base so it could be considered. Ignoring what was asked, Scofield continued to force the requests, and in return they were not considered resulting in his leave early February 2010. In late February - early March 2010 the base still was not up to par due to the exit from the BSM side. Banufong received help from Pjrey Writer to install another wall to replace the previous massive wall. This wall was more appropriate to the theme with a rough, clay rock look. It allowed members to snipe from on top, jump over, and go under an opening. It was found that later while there was no other immediate fix that this wall posed an issue as well with not helping defense. In mid-March, Verwood proposed the base be gutted and buildings replaced however keeping true to the theme. This would prevent the base from being deleted again since things were still unsure with Furman. Starting from scratch, Verwood began building and placing things on base again with help from Banufong and Diabolito. As things progressed along, comments from BSM members and attackers were taken into consideration to improve the base. Many favored the openness of the base and the previous base that allowed both defenders and attackers to find good sight for long rage and close quarter shooting as well as cover in the open land. However with the last remodel of the base, the public spawn remained in the center of the sim on the edge and the BSM spawn remained in the opposite corner. The placing of the public spawn was found to be at a disadvantage to the attacker. In April 2010, Verwood and Diabolito drew up a small modification to the sim that would allow a better and fairer chance to both attacker and defender. Banufong agreed to the change and the idea was put in motion. The plan was to move the public spawn in the opposite corner of the sim opposite from the BSM spawn and to shift the entire sim at an angle. The small change received positive feedback from members and now fighting from both sides seemed more fair and more challenging. As people seemed more pleased with the sim, BSM was finally making its mark. In late April 2010, Diabolito announced his demotion from General due to personal reasons. May 2010 came quickly and BSM remained to be going steady with the help from members and attackers. During this time, Banufong announced his leave due to RL obligations leaving Verwood to lead alone. Hearing about Banufong's leave, Diabolito came back to position of General to help. Verwood and Diabolito both felt it was necessary to meet with each member and rank up those who were responsible and natural leaders better positions in order to have and someone in almost each rank of BSM. This would allow more people authority in times of absence of either general. As mid-May approached Diabolito was unable to serve as General eventually leaving BSM and SL. Though Verwood pushed the army through it became more and more difficult overall and financially for her or other officers to be there all the time to cover all time zones. This resulted in things slowing for BSM considerably. In Late May 2010, after a meeting with the members, Verwood decided to shut the doors to BSM's home Kingston Springs due to financial issues. Though the members all felt a strong urge to stay a group, however, now without a sim some decided to stay true to BSM and still raid with the group and lone wolf with the BSM tag. With summer around the corner and more and more members logging on less Verwood called for another meeting to discuss the possibility in joining another army. This idea went in favor due to the members wanting to stay together and fight instead of breaking apart. For the next week, Verwood along with RICKROCKS Richez, Aleks Radmussen, and Ginny Seriman would all visit other armies sims’ to make decisions on who to join. In early June 2010 Verwood learned of a new army that had just emerged by the name of IX Legion from a friend. Verwood visited IX Legion sim and spoke with leader Finn Ronas who was very understandable and offered BSM to join. Days later Verwood returned to IX Legion with Richez and Radmussen so they could speak to the leader as well as observe the sim. With positive feedback from both Richez and Radmussen and moments later after speaking to Ronas it was official that BSM was disbanded and a new beginning for the members would begin. Today, Banufong got back into SL in mid-to-late 2010 to start up once again BSM. It now resides in BSM Land sim. Category:Military Category:Military Groups